Photos: In Kabul, the Ka Faroshi bird market has outlived conflict

The war seems a long way off in the Ka Faroshi bird market in the heart of Kabul's old city. In a narrow lane with a few alleys, are packed small, mud-walled shops festooned with bird cages.

Updated on: Feb 02, 2018 4:59 PM IST

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Sayed Mohammad Ali holds his rooster at the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul, Afghanistan. For some Afghans weighed down by decades of war and struggle, some comfort and distraction can be found in the company of birds. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Bird vendors display canaries to buyers at the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Canary cages hang inside a shop for sale inside the narrow alleys of the market, where the war seems a long way off. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Customers, most men, but some blue burqa-clad women too, squeeze down the crowded street, stopping to inspect birds on display, haggle with shopkeepers and buy bird seed and other supplies. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Grain boxes are seen for sale in a shop at the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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A parrot is seen inside a shop for sale at the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul. Most of the birds come from Afghanistan, caught in the wild or raised. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Roosters for sale at the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul. “In Afghanistan, it’s a passion to keep birds,” said Rafiullhah Ahmadi, who sells fighting cocks at the market. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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“Some people love to keep fighting cocks, some love to have partridges and some love to have other kinds of birds. It’s a custom in Afghanistan,” adds Rafiullah Ahmadi. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Afshin, 12, plays on a mobile phone inside the shop where he sells bird food at the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Farhad, 13, poses with his rooster for a photograph. Entering Kabul’s bird market is like stepping back in time a hundred years, to a city untouched by war or modernisation. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Fatih, 70, holds a cage of partridges as he poses for a picture at Ka Faroshi bird market. An elegant reddish-grey bird with a black band across its eyes and around its throat, a red beak, and black stripes on its side, partridges are bred for fighting. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Men watch a cockfight at Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul. In the market, fighting cocks and partridges squawk in bell-shaped wicker cages, while finches, larks and canaries of all varieties hop about in cages, and pigeons coo in small aviaries made of wire. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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While the bird market is quite the marketplace, at the far end of the bazaar are the kaftar (doves), a common sight in Kabul’s late afternoon skies. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Some birds are imported from neighbouring countries, such as Iran and Pakistan, but traders said business was down, with few birds being imported these days. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)

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Two friends and traders, Mirza (right), 65, and Noor Mohammad, 72, pose for a picture at the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul. (Mohammad Ismail / REUTERS)